


Sandcastles

by danehemmings



Series: Kakashi/Obito Drabbles [9]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 09:33:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11250384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danehemmings/pseuds/danehemmings
Summary: Kakashi grows up. Obito builds sandcastles.





	Sandcastles

Kakashi is five, playing in the park with Rin, and her shadow, Obito. They’ve been sitting in the sandbox for the better part of an afternoon, and he’s managed to create a rather impressive sandcastle. Rin tells him as much, twenty times over, until Obito huffs and kicks it. Kakashi’s hard work crumbles.

“Obito,” Rin chides, “Why’d you do that?”

Obito crosses his arms but doesn’t answer; instead he meets Kakashi’s glare with. Kakashi knocks over Obito’s own drooping castle, which brings red into Obito’s cheeks.

“Hey!” Obito makes a gesture as though he’s going to lunge for Kakashi, but Rin pulls him back.

“Stop it, you two!”

Obito deflates immediately, but Kakashi isn’t held back by a stupid crush, and so he says, “You’ll never win against me.”

He knows the words are exactly what Obito fears. He feels a twinge of guilt at the tears that well up in the other’s eyes, but more prominent is the satisfaction of getting the last word in.

Obito runs home, and Rin breaks tradition by not running after him and stays to help Kakashi rebuild his sandcastle.

When he gets home that evening, his father is just finishing up making dinner. Kakashi smiles and recounts his day, purposefully leaving out his brief argument with Obito. Sakumo likes Obito, for some reason, and is always cross with Kakashi when he hears they’ve been fighting again.

~~

At seven, Kakashi is a whole grade ahead, and Rin looks at him as though he’s pure gold. Obito tends to avoid him now, which is fine by Kakashi. The kid always gets in his way anyways.

He doesn’t join Rin at the playground anymore. He’s older, and the playground is for little kids. But Sakumo thinks he needs to make more friends besides Guy and Rin, so he insists Kakashi goes there after school everyday this week.

Of course, the only person at the playground is Obito. Kakashi spots him perfecting a sandcastle wall, and makes sure to go to the swings on the opposite side of the playground. He hopes other kids show up soon.   
He swings - for something to do, not because he likes childish things like swinging. It gets boring after awhile, and it’s still only him and Obito. Kakashi decides he’ll make conversation, to pass the time so his father thinks he made friends. He sits on the sandbox’s edge.

Obito’s sandcastle is amazing, complete with four towers and a moat. “You’re still bad at sandcastles,” Kakashi says.

Obito’s hand, which had been smoothing the side of a tower, stills for a moment. He glances up at Kakashi, frowns, and then continues working. “Hello?” Kakashi waves a hand in front of Obito’s face.

“Careful,” Obito says, “You’ll ruin it.”

“It’s already ruined - you built it.”

Obito finally abandons perfecting his sandcastle to scowl at Kakashi, “What’d I ever do to you?”

“You’re annoying,” Kakashi smirks. Obito rises to the bait this time.

“You’re a jerk!”

“Loser.”

“Know-it-all!”

“Failure.” At this Obito drops his gaze, and Kakashi feels satisfied, as usual, at gaining the upper hand. He’s hasn’t argued with Obito in at least a few months, and he feels excited. Reckless.

“Why can’t you leave me alone?” Obito groans, “You’re the worst to be around.”

Kakashi doesn’t think past getting out the best insult he can, “You know why you’re such a failure?”

Obito stares at his sandcastle and says, “No. I don’t want to-”

“It’s because you haven’t had parents to raise you properly.” Obito goes rigid, and Kakashi prepares for whatever dumb comeback the Uchiha will come up with. But all Obito does is heave a dry sob, and sprint out of the playground, stepping all over his sandcastle in his hurry to get away. Kakashi is disappointed. He think of his father, who wanted him to make friends, and feels guilty.  
Maybe- maybe he should go apologize. Kakashi can’t, though. He doesn’t want Obito as a friend, and he doesn’t want the other kids at school thinking he is a weakling. He can hear Sakumo scolding him already. But his father isn’t seven, so how can he possibly understand? He’s a dumb old man, Kakashi tells himself as he steps inside his home, I know better.

He finds Sakumo’s body dangling next to the kitchen table.

~~

Kakashi is ten, and he is two grades ahead of all the other kids his age. He’s smarter, and he’s going to be more successful, because he follows the rules. He nothing like Obito, who is barely passing and never listens to the teachers.

The kids he shares classes with - the twelve year olds - they often glance and Kakashi and whisper to each other that he’s strange. Cold, he hears one boy whisper. But that doesn’t matter, because Kakashi is smarter than them, too, and he doesn’t need friends.

Most days, he doesn’t need friends. Today, it’s father’s day, and he really wishes for a friend, or someone to help take his mind off of Sakumo. He sees his father everywhere today, as he was when Kakashi found him.

The teacher points at what she’s written on the blackboard, and beside her hangs Sakumo, rope around his neck and head lolled to the side. Grey eyes open but lifeless. Cheeks a strange purplish color. Dead.

Kakashi is smart, and so he doesn’t cry, like stupid Obito, or run away. He concentrates hard on his teacher’s voice, and eventually, Sakumo’s body isn’t there anymore.

But it appears again as Kakashi walks home from school. This time he’s hanging from the tree, lifeless form swaying with the breeze. Kakashi tries to shake away the image, but he can’t. His feet won’t move to take him past the body, and so he makes a sharp left and stomps into the park, towards the playground.

He is surprised to see Obito there, sitting at the top of the slide and staring at the bottom of it as though it’s going to attack him. Kakashi has stayed away from Obito since their last confrontation at the playground - he’d decided Obito wasn’t worth his time. Today, being with Obito was better than being alone.

“Are you scared?” He asks the Uchiha, who jumps in surprise. Obito’s face closes up when he sees Kakashi.

“No, I was just thinking,” Obito says warily. He hugs his knees to his chest, as though he’s protecting himself from Kakashi.

“Thinking? I didn’t know you could,” Kakashi taunts, but its halfhearted at best.

Obito seems to notice. “Hard day?” He asks hesitantly. Kakashi remembers Obito's an orphan, too. 

“Yeah,” He looks at the ground to avoid hallucinating another vision of his dead father. “Let’s not talk about it.”

“Okay,” Obito slides down and stands in front of Kakashi, “What do you wanna talk about?”

“Nothing,” It’s a reflex to try and dismiss Obito, yet he doesn’t want the other boy to leave. He gestures to the sandbox, “We could build sandcastles?”

Obito gives a forced smile, “Sure.”

Obito, who’s lived through ten fatherless father’s days, makes an effort to cheer Kakashi up. He tries subtle giving Kakashi advice on how to best make his castle (Kakashi’s skills haven’t improved since past age five), while simultaneously building the most atrocious castle ever. When they are both done, he leans back and pointed asks, “What do you think of mine?”

Kakashi could almost laugh at how ugly Obito’s sandcastle turned out. “It’s awful,” He tells Obito, who grins.

“So is yours.”

Kakashi kicks Obito’s sandcastle in retaliation.

~~

“What’s it like?” Obito asks, two years later, after he’s started his second year of middle school and Kakashi’s started his first year of high school. They are at the playground, because they (Kakashi) still won’t admit they’ve become friends, and so both simply happen to meet there most days.

“It’s like middle school, except I’m older,” Kakashi tells Obito, who rolls his eyes. Kakashi is tempted to knock over the sand tower Obito insisted on making.

“Yeah, but are the classes harder?” Obito says, eyeing Kakashi’s sneaker, which had been inching closer to his sand tower. Kakashi withdraws it to sit criss-cross.

“I don’t know, Obito, today was only the first day,” Kakashi states with a sigh at his companion’s stupidity.

“It was only my first day but I can already tell it’s going to be harder for me this year,” Obito says crossly, “You know I’m a total idiot, right?”

“Sure,” Kakashi shrugs, watching a few grains of sand fall from Obito’s tower.

They sit in silence for a moment as Obito gathers sand and Kakashi stares at Obito, until a voice behind them makes Obito jump and destroy his sand tower.

“Obito! Kakashi!” It’s Rin, jogging towards them with a huge smile on her face, “I thought I’d find the two of you here!”

She pauses at the sight of Kakashi vehemently trying not to laugh while Obito gazes sadly at his failed tower. Kakashi regains himself enough to say, “Hello, Rin. How was the first day of seventh grade?”

He usually isn’t so friendly to Rin, because he sees how she lights up when he is, and how Obito depresses. He prefers a happy Obito. His not-friend appears not to notice how Rin is suddenly dazzling as she replies, “It was great, thanks Kakashi! How’s high school?”

He keeps one eye on Obito, who is oddly not at all bothered by Rin sitting down a little too close to Kakashi, as he repeats what he said earlier, “It’s the same, except that I’m twelve now instead of eleven.”

Kakashi wasn’t making a joke, but Rin laughs as if he did. 

“Why were you looking for us?” Obito asks, but he lacks the aggravated tone he usually gets when Rin pays more attention to Kakashi than him. The world feels off-kilter.

“Kurenai’s parents are letting her have a bunch of us over to celebrate starting a new year of school,” Rin informs them, “You guys are invited!”

Kakashi meets Obito’s eyes, and without words he knows the both of them don’t want to go. Obito not 

“Oh, when?” Obito asks with fake enthusiasm.

“Next weekend!” Rin says excitedly.

Kakashi is happy he doesn’t have feelings for Rin, and therefore is guiltless as he says, “I can’t then, sorry.”  
Obito makes a rude gesture at him and Rin’s face falls. “I can go, Rin,” He says to cheer her up. It barely works, and Rin says goodbye to them with a mere half smile.

“An afternoon of misery won’t kill you, you know,” Obito says, lobbing a mound of sand at Kakashi’s hair. It lands perfectly, and when he shakes his head to get rid of it, sand falls down the back of his shirt. He grimaces.

“Aren’t you happy I won’t be in the way of your romancing Rin?”

Obito is startled, “Romancing? I’m not-”

“It’s obvious you like her,” Kakashi interrupts.

“No, actually,” Obito says, acting as though Kakashi’s said something offensive, “I like someone else.”

“Someone else?” Kakashi can’t hold back his laugh this time. Obito’s mouth pops open and then snaps closed.

“You don’t have to believe me!” He announces, “but it’s true.”

Kakashi picks up a handful of sand and lets it slip through his fingers rather than throwing it in Obito’s face. He can’t picture Obito having a crush on anyone but Rin. He’s not sure if he likes the idea of it.

~~

Kakashi is fifteen, his first prom is in a few weeks, and he’s nervous. He has two tickets in his pockets and sweat on his brow as he marches toward Obito, who still insists on building sandcastles.

Obito looks up from his three-story castle and smiles, “Hey, ‘Kashi!”

Kakashi heart flutters. He steels himself for the worst, “Obito. I have to ask you something.” His tone is much more formal sounding than he intended, but he resists the urge to cringe and keeps his face blank.

“Uh, okay?” Obito gives Kakashi a once-over, frowning in the same fashion as when he can tell Kakashi’s lying to him.

Kakashi swallows. He wipes his hands on his pants. Obito stands up, alarmed now, “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Kakashi waves a hand dismissively. “I want to take you to prom.” He looks Obito dead in the forehead, counts it as a win because at least he’s not staring at the ground.

There’s a long pause during which Kakashi keeps staring at Obito’s forehead and his eyes start tearing up from staying open too long.

“Yeah, sure,” Obito says nonchalantly, “I guess you couldn’t find any girls to take with you?”

Obito is dumb, Kakashi has to remind himself, and the thought comforts him enough to calm his nerves somewhat. Correcting Obito is familiar territory. “No, idiot, I don’t like girls, I like you.”

Another pause. Kakashi raises his eyebrows as Obito’s gaping mouth and thrusts a ticket at him. “I bought it for you so you can’t say no.”

“You actually like me back?” Obito says, wide-eyed. He doesn’t take the ticket.

Kakashi sighs and shoves the ticket down Obito’s front pants pocket. Then he realizes what Obito’s said. “You like me too?

Obito laughs and places a chaste kiss on Kakashi’s cheek, “Last week I told you I wished you could be the Minato to my Kushina.”

“And I was supposed to translate that to: ‘I want to date you, Kakashi.’?” Kakashi refuses to feel stupid.

Obito huffs, “You were saying how great it is that they love each other! I was being romantic, but you just laughed at me.”

“You were just laughing at me five seconds ago,” Kakashi says, disgruntled. This was not how he pictured this conversation.

Obito grins, “I’ll go to prom with you, Kakashi.”

“Oh,” Kakashi says. Obito snorts, and Kakashi lurches forward to kiss him, because that’s a thing he can do, now that they’ve confessed.

Obito stumbles backwards, and they both topple onto Obito’s sandcastle, demolishing it.

“Asshole,” Obito mutters between kisses.

~~

**Author's Note:**

> Don't even know what this turned out to be, but thank you for reading!


End file.
